[eng] Rainfall, melted snow and evaporation affect the rivers water level and periods of drought may impair freight transport by inland navigation during a number of days. Indeed, water depth conditions the loading of vessels, hence their transport cost and their competitive position versus alternative modes, rail and trucking. The ECCONET research project funded by the European Commission endeavored to measure the potential effects of these phenomena on the Rhine and Danube navigation in the context of the observed weather variability and expected climate change scenarios. Many inter-disciplinary issues and methodologies are involved in such an analysis. These were tackled in several technical reports on statistical data, climate evolution prognoses, vessels specifications, adjustment strategies, etc. The present paper uses as inputs part of the wealth of information gathered during that project. The paper presents a long-term multimodal transport analysis over the period 2005-2050, which is based on two climate impact scenarios on the Rhine and Danube hydrology. The geographic multimodal transport model NODUS is calibrated with respect to transport costs on estimated 2005 and forecast 2050 matrixes of freight transport flows between origins and destinations within Continental Europe per mode and per type of commodities. The model is used to analyze the effects of climate induced changes in the distributions of water depth on transport costs and on the resulting modal splits between the three competing modes, rail, road and inland waterway transports. The model integrates the effects of planned future European investments in the networks’ infrastructure, and gives some insights on the cost savings that some improved vessels designs and operations could provide.